La Recette du Jour

This is a nice variation on the traditional fish pie with a mashed potato top and cheesy sauce, based on an idea from WorldWide Recipes that includes shrimps and scallops. With all due respect to the Chef, I think putting scallops in a fish pie is a bit of a waste of scallops, so I would always recommend using whatever mixture of not-too-expensive fish you fancy. My absolute favourite version is with real Finnan haddock, but sadly that is completely unobtainable here; the nearest you can get is that ghastly bright yellow stuff that stains everything it touches. On this occasion, we used some fillets of firm white fish and a smallish piece of salmon. Feel free to put shrimps or prawns in too, if you fancy them.
Recipe for Fish pie »

Around here we don’t have to wait till November for our vin nouveau, like those upstarts in Beaujolais; it’s ready by the third week in October. You don’t have to use new wine for this recipe; any dry white wine you fancy will do. Or dry cider, if wine is too expensive! Try to get some good honey though, not the tasteless supermarket sort. I used herb-scented garrigue honey from a nearby village. It’s easy and quick to make, and is a good alternative to our other standby casserole of pork blanquette paprika. Serve it with a potato gratin, or if that’s too much bother, Ebly or pasta.

Pork and prunes are a classic combination, but most recipes use relatively expensive tenderloin, while for this one a cheaper cut such as shoulder is fine. I haven’t included a photo because I just couldn’t make it look attractive! But the sauce is a lovely rich caramel colour, and it’s delicious — I would certainly serve it to guests. This recipe would probably work really well in a slow cooker too.
Recipe for Pork with prunes and vin primeur »

My mother used to cook big Spanish onions stuffed with minced beef and vegetables a lot when we were young; an economical family dish, if not quick to make. Whole onions take ages to cook, but the actual hands-on time isn’t that much.

I haven’t had them for years, and a sudden cold snap after weeks of warm weather made me think of this comfort food. These are nothing like my mother’s, but they are delicious anyway; I just made the recipe up as I went along. If you want something more like hers, replace the stuffing with some home-made ragù bolognese.
Recipe for Stuffed onions »

This recipe inaugurates a new tag of “frugal food”, which seems appropriate in these credit-crunch times. Made mainly of ripe tomatoes and stale bread, it costs almost nothing, and can make a light vegetarian main course along with a green vegetable or salad. Carnivores can have it as a substantial side dish with a roast — less meat needed! And of course I wouldn’t be posting it if it wasn’t delicious. The bottom layer of crumbs soaks up the juices, while the top is brown and crunchy.

I habitually whiz stale ends of bread to crumbs in the blender and then store them in the freezer in ziploc bags, as they are useful for so many things. So I used some of those for this, and the last of the season’s tomatoes. It’s really best made with the ripest, reddest tomatoes you can find. If they’re a bit pale, up the garlic and herbs to compensate.
Recipe for Brown Tom »

This is a quick and simple tart. You can make it with pretty much any soft cheese — we used goat’s cheese, but you could use feta, brousse de brebis, petit suisse, even Philly!
Recipe for Courgette, cheese, and herb tart »

Our butcher shouts with laughter if you ask him for six or even four lamb shanks — he only buys one or two lambs at a time, so the number of shanks is strictly limited. Luckily that palace of frozen food, Picard, always has a plentiful supply of frozen New Zealand lamb, with shanks in packs of two. Cooked until falling off the bone, they are a really delicious morsel and go particularly well with dried fruit, as the famous seven-hour lamb from Le Manchon d’Henri demonstrated.

This tajine is very special too; a concentrated, spicy sauce with the rich flavours of prunes, apricots and figs, and meltingly tender meat. If you can’t get shanks, you could just use cubed leg or shoulder. Serve it with couscous (of course). This dish makes me wonder why we don’t eat more North African food.
Recipe for Lamb tagine »

This is from Judith Wills’ Top 200 Low-Fat Recipes (out of print). It was nice, and very quick to make, but the duck itself, while virtuously low-fat, was a bit disappointing: no crispy skin! It was also a bit underdone; I think Peking duck really does need to be shreddable with a fork.

I would highly recommend buying the pancakes if they are available in your area; they aren’t here, so I had to make mine, using a Kenneth Lo recipe. Again, they are simple, but fiddly. It’s best to make them ahead of time and reheat in a steamer. That way, you will be relaxed when your guests arrive. I also recommend making more than you think you need, then you can throw away the ruined ones.

I was most pleased with the home-made plum sauce; effort vs. results was on a different scale to the other two items. Really delicious, and quick to make. I will certainly make this again … with real Peking duck next time
Recipe for “Peking” Duck »

Serendipity rules! I’ve long liked Patricia Scarpin’s Technicolor Kitchen, but an incompatibility with my feed reader meant I didn’t follow it regularly (if a site isn’t in my reader, it doesn’t get read!). Then today I discovered the magic switch to make it work, and her last 25 posts whizzed into view. I spent a happy half hour browsing them while simultaneously wondering what I was going to cook tonight, because it’s the end of the week and I haven’t been shopping.

What luck! I had all the ingredients for this recipe to hand, and it took barely longer to make than the time needed to boil the pasta. It’s very adaptable, and I loved the fresh flavour imparted by the lemon zest and juice. A new default dinner to rival tagliatelle carbonara! Picture taken hastily just before we dived in.

Note:the original recipe is credited to the late Sher, who sadly died unexpectedly a month ago, and whose blog I didn’t know about till today.
Recipe for Pasta with courgettes, lemon, and pine nuts »

Taste & Create time, and I seem to be firmly stuck in the risotto groove. My partner this month is Cuisine Heart, and after browsing her blog I found several recipes to interest me. After the fabulous pear and gorgonzola risotto, I was tempted by her caramelized apple, onion and cheese risotto. Also I was running out of time, and it was easy and quick to do, using ingredients from the storecupboard. It’s basically a standard risotto method, except that you caramelize the apples and onions instead of just gently softening them in the oil, and use dry cider instead of white wine.

Verdict: OK, it is not up to pear and gorgonzola standards, but it was delicious and unusual. The only cheese I had was a stub of Comté and lots of parmesan, so I made do with those and didn’t add cream at the end. I loved the tart fruitiness of the cider and apple. We ate it on its own, but it would be nice as an accompaniment to roast pork. The photo is just further proof of how unphotogenic risotto is.

Thank you, Rossella of Ma che ti sei mangiato! I cooked Rossella’s leek risotto for Taste & Create, and she told me about this recipe. She said it was divine, and it is. Creamy, rich, with the perfect combination of pears and gorgonzola, and walnuts to add crunch. One of the best risotti I’ve ever had. Vegetarian too! No photo, because I already know risotto isn’t photogenic.

Even if you’ve never cooked risotto in your life, you owe it to yourself to try this. Don’t be scared — risotto is really easy. But you must use proper Italian risotto rice, otherwise it will be a travesty.

Recipe for Pear and gorgonzola risotto »